Funded Project: Accessible Cycling with Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor

Posted by benniefinch on November 27th, 2023 Posted in: Blog, Funded Project, Weekly Newsletter
Tags: Funded Projects, Member Spotlight

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This guest post is shared courtesy of Bonnie Combs of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor about their NNLM Region 7 Funded Project “Opening Doors to the Outdoors”.

People with disabilities constitute a substantial part of the American public. About 1 in 4 people in Massachusetts and Rhode Island have one or more disabilities. While physical exercise is important for the physical and mental health of all people, adults with disabilities are twice as likely as adults with no disabilities to get no physical exercise. Some programs are working to close the disparity in physical activity, but they are inaccessible to all, and the activity gap remains large. The adaptive cycling program offers opportunities for individuals with physical and/or cognitive disabilities to exercise and learn information about the resources of MedlinePlus.

The Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor was created by Congress as a National Heritage Area in 1986 to tell its nationally significant story as the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. Today, BRVNHC is a nonprofit organization that works with 25 communities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to preserve and promote their historic, cultural, natural, and recreational resources. We continually work to make the stories and resources of the Blackstone Valley available to a wider audience. This program allows us to welcome visitors who may not regularly have the opportunity to bike along the Blackstone River on the Greenway and Bikeway. In providing opportunities for physical exercise, we are also building community between participants and our volunteers.

On August 14th, a virtual training was held for volunteers who would be participating in the Accessible Cycling programs about MedlinePlus. In this training, volunteers learned how to navigate the website, the resources available, and how they would be able to introduce visitors to these resources during the Accessible Cycling Programs. Volunteers also learned etiquette and appropriate language to use when working with visitors who have disabilities. This training prepared volunteers to engage with visitors using an internet-enabled tablet to show them MedlinePlus as a resource at the accessible cycling event.

Along with our partner, All Out Adventures, we held two Accessible Cycling Events at the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Blackstone River Greenway in Blackstone, Massachusetts, and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s Blackstone River Bikeway in September of 2023. At these events, individuals who are unable to ride a traditional bicycle were given the opportunity to use recumbent tricycles, hand cycles, wheelchair bikes, or recumbent tandem bikes. Participants were joined by their families and our volunteers who are familiar with the Greenway/Bikeway on their bike ride. Before or after the bike rides, trained volunteers also introduced participants to the resources of MedlinePlus. These bike rides were offered completely free of cost for these participants.

One of the challenges we faced in this program was the recruitment of participants. We reached out to a number of agencies that work with individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities, to veterans organizations, to senior centers, and to other community organizations. Part of the issue may have been that these programs were held on a weekday versus a Saturday, as they were in the past. We ultimately had smaller rides than we had planned, but these allowed the participants a more 1:1 approach with our volunteers and staff.

We are proud of the access to both exercise and natural resources this program provided. Our participants ranged from avid bicyclists to first-time bicyclists. For one participating family, this was their first bike ride together. This program allowed 31 individuals with disabilities to exercise while taking in the natural beauty of the Blackstone River and spending time with family and friends.